Status
Habitat
Range
Group
Runs a fermentation vat on a diet of unripe mangrove leaves.
The stomach is divided and full of symbiotic bacteria that break down cellulose and neutralise the toxins in unripe leaves — the same solution a cow uses, arrived at independently in a primate. Fermentation makes the animal permanently distended, and it means sugary ripe fruit can be dangerous: rapid fermentation causes bloating that can kill.
They never live far from water. Troops sleep in trees along riverbanks and cross channels by swimming, with partially webbed feet and a tolerance for crocodile-inhabited water. That dependence on the riverine strip is the problem — it is exactly the land cleared first for oil palm, aquaculture and settlement.
The open shelf
More frames of the proboscis monkey
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